1. Cross-curricular extension
unit 2
Language and literature: Charles Dickens
1 Complete the text about Charles Dickens with the words in the box.
characters happy endings
poverty protagonists
slums wealthy
workhouses
Charles Dickens was an author of realist novels who lived during the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the
nineteenth century. This was a time of great change, when some people became very (1)_______________ and built
country mansions, while others had very little money. For these people, (2)_______________ was normal. Many
people moved to cities and for the poorest, home was in the worst, dirtiest parts of the cities, called
(3)_______________ or in terrible buildings where they lived and worked, called (4)_______________. Charles
Dickens’s novels show both sides of life. The people in his novels represent the different parts of society and his
(5)_______________ have a wide variety of occupations. The most important people in his novels, the
(6)_______________, have often had a hard life. However, although realist novels presented the problems of
everyday life, these problems usually corrected themselves at the end. This was true of Dickens’s novels, many of
which had (7)_______________.
2 Write the people or occupations. Use the words in the box.
apprentice blacksmith convict
labourer
lawyer
merchant pickpocket seamstress
1 ____________________
2 ____________________
3 ____________________
4 ____________________
5 ____________________
6 ____________________
7 ____________________
8 ____________________
3 Match 1–7 with definitions a–g.
1 orphan
a This person loves having money but never enjoys spending it.
2 spinster
b This person’s parents have died.
3 abandoned child
c This person is legally responsible for a child, but isn’t his / her parent.
4 guardian
d This woman’s husband has died.
5 miser
e This person is dead but is sometimes visible to the living.
6 ghost
f
7 widow
g This person’s parents have left him / her, but they might still be alive.
This is a woman who has never married.
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2. 4 Read the text. Then choose the correct sentence from 1–3.
1 Charles Dickens was an orphan who became very wealthy.
2 Charles Dickens had a difficult childhood.
3 Charles Dickens lived in a mansion when he was young.
A man and his work
Charles Dickens is one of the most famous British writers of realist novels. His books are a form of social
criticism of the hard reality of life in Victorian England. The books were published in parts, or instalments,
every month. This made Dickens’s novels available to everyone, even those who couldn’t afford books.
Charles Dickens’s own life was far from perfect. His father was sent to prison and Charles was taken out of
school and made to work in a factory, living alone in rented rooms. Although the family recovered and
Charles returned to school, he never forgot this terrible period. As a result, many sections in his novels are
autobiographical: they show aspects of his own life.
Many of Dickens’s novels feature orphans or abandoned children as their protagonists. The other characters
are usually unpleasant or unfortunate: greedy merchants and factory owners, pickpockets and convicts, poor
labourers and lonely spinsters. The stories are full of cliff hangers – exciting moments in the novel – to keep
the readers interested. The settings move between wealthy homes and slums where poverty is everywhere.
In one of Dickens’s most famous novels, Oliver Twist, a young orphan meets a group of pickpockets when
he runs away to London. Although he meets other people who try to help him, the pickpockets are always
waiting to pull him back to their world of crime. But as Dickens’s novels often have happy endings, at the
end of the story Oliver has a new guardian and a happy life in the country. Perhaps Dickens hoped to end
his life in a similar way.
5 Read the text again. Then answer the questions.
1 What was the advantage of publishing novels in
monthly instalments?
6 Read the summary of Dickens’s novel, Oliver
Twist. There are four mistakes. Find information
about the novel on the internet. Then underline
and correct the mistakes.
__________________________________________
At the beginning of the novel, Oliver Twist is an
__________________________________________
orphan who has an easy life. In London, he meets a
2 How was Charles Dickens’s family split up when
he was a child?
gang of pickpockets and becomes their leader. When
he tries to steal from an old man, the man gives him a
__________________________________________
home. Oliver discovers that he has a brother who
__________________________________________
wants to give him some money. At the end of the
3 Are Dickens’s characters usually happy people?
novel, his brother lives happily with the old man.
Explain your answer.
__________________________________________
1
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
2
__________________________________________
3
__________________________________________
4
__________________________________________
4 Where do we see the contrast between rich
Victorian life and poverty?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
5 Why is the ending in Oliver Twist typical of
7 Imagine you are going to write a realist novel
about modern society. Think about questions
1–4. Then write a summary of your novel.
1 Which aspects of everyday life would you include
Dickens’s novels?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
in your story?
2 Where would it take place?
3 What occupations would the characters have?
4 Would it have a happy or sad ending?
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